Millions in U.S. believed to be pre-diabetic

Government urges prevention to ward off full-blown epidemic

Millions more Americans than previously thought have signs of what could later turn into diabetes, the government says.

Doubling previous figures, the government estimates that 41 million Americans have pre-diabetes — blood sugar high enough to dramatically increase their risk of getting the full-blown disease.

The figures released Wednesday are significantly higher than previous estimates because doctors have changed the criteria for diagnosing the condition after research showed they were missing too many at-risk patients.

“These latest numbers show how urgent the problem really is,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who was announcing the new estimates at a federal health meeting Thursday in Baltimore.

“We need to help Americans take steps to prevent diabetes or we will risk being overwhelmed by the health and economic consequences of an ever-growing diabetes epidemic.”

The good news is that modest diet and exercise can delay, if not prevent, the onset of diabetes in many pre-diabetics.

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